Shivakumar challenges money laundering probe against him

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought the Enforcement Directorate’s reply on Congress state president D K Shivakumar’s plea challenging a money laundering probe initiated against him by the agency.

Shivakumar filed a plea questioning the constitutional validity of the inclusion of the offence pertaining to disproportionate assets under the Prevention of Corruption Act as a “scheduled act” under the Prevention of Money Laundering (PML) Act.

The bench comprising Justices Mukta Gupta and Anish Dayal issued a notice to the ED and posted the matter to December 15.

Shivakumar has challenged the proceedings initiated by ED in 2020, arguing that the agency is “re-investigating the same offence” which it had already investigated in a previous case registered by it in 2018.

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Senior advocate Kapil Sibal representing Shivakumar argued that there can be no case for the offence of money laundering on allegations of disproportionate assets.

“Once you have come to the conclusion that the assets are disproportionate to the known sources of income, there cannot be money laundering after that. There cannot be a matter of law,” he said.

It is also alleged that the Delhi office of Enforcement Directorate has no territorial jurisdiction to conduct the present investigation and summon the petitioner who is a permanent resident of Bengaluru.

The CBI, in October 2020, had lodged an FIR alleging that during the period between April 1, 2013 and April 30, 2018, Shivakumar could not satisfactorily explain the disproportionate assets to his known sources of income.

Subsequently, the ED lodged another ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) in 2020 for probing the laundering of proceeds of crime in relation to the scheduled offence being Section 13 of Prevention of Corruption Act.